Project Ornithopter from a team based at the U of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies.

'The purpose of this project is to achieve humanity's oldest aeronautical dream: flight with mechanical flapping wings.....'

the site describes the craft they are building, and some history of the attempts at this kind of powered flight for humans.

the craft is due for testing shortly......link

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an online exhibition with the work of E.J. Marey, a physician and physiologist who lived in the mid 1800's and turned his mind toward the movement of many things. Using graphical means and then by chronophotography, he slowed, accelerated, stopped time, to examine how things moved. His inventions contributed to modern cinematography, and medical and scientific processes.

A very interesting collection of images and equipment that came from an inquiring mind constrained by the technology of his time...........link

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here is a Canadian guy who does the one man band thing in big style.

from his website... "McRorie wears eight custom designed sensors on his shoes, four sensors on his chest, two midi keyboards on his hips, and sings lead vocals, harmonies, and solo instruments with his voice. McRorie coordinates the multiple parts of a musical composition: drums, bass, rhythm, vocals, and lead instruments -- TOTALLY LIVE."

You can see clips of him in action and on the talk show trail, also peruse his song list of monster 80's hits.

link

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and some great poster art and historical image archives.......

The Authentic History Centre .......with an American slant, from the Civil War to present............link

Sleaze Science Fiction Covers .....................link

optical illusions are a fascinating struggle between the perceived and the (apparently) real.

I looked at the proof and the explanation, and still don't trust it.

link

FutureFeedForward --a hilarious sampling of news stories from the future, spanning a wide range, and covering everything from undead celebrities to future science.

from March 8, 2041

WASHINGTON DC--Citing what Northrop Grumman engineers have identified as a flaw in specially designed navigation software, spokespeople for the Presidential Cabinet confirmed late Wednesday that the 53rd President of the United States, the first entirely autonomous, mechanical, airborne leader in the western world, has crashed and is likely unrecoverable. "This is a black day for America," noted a solemn administration spokeswoman. "But it may also be a day of great courage. The American people took a great leap forward when they elected [the President]; may we not now retreat from that great vision."

"The President, widely known by his Northrop development codename "Skipper," was reportedly surveilling the former Korean De-Militarized Zone when a software flaw led him to "invert" positioning data he received from a network of satellites and ground-based antennae. "Though specific details of the mishap are certainly classified, we can say that a sudden, systematic mis-transformation of positioning data lead the President to believe that up was down and down was up," explains an unidentified Northrop engineer. "He lost compass and got locked into a fatal feedback flightpath. The closer he got to the ground, the higher he tried to fly, bringing him closer to the ground until he crashed at an apparently high velocity."

link

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like clocks?

lots of different clocks?

Sestka.com has a nice collection of timepieces crafted from odd bits and pieces and remnants from toys, machines, tools and other things i haven't been able to place.

This one has a very intent figure perched on a living room chair revolving around the minutes.......

link

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every workplace need to experience just once.......RoboDump

"RoboDump is a robot. Sort of. And it poops. Sort of. Forever. A horrible, never-ending bowel movement complete with straining grunts, horrific gas, splashes, and pee sounds.

I snuck RoboDump into the men's room at the office. Unfortunately, today turned out to be the day of a board meeting. Whoops! It still went over well; the office was abuzz all morning with gossip about the guy in the bathroom. Several people theorized it was the CFO. The janitor commented to someone in the hallway that he wanted to clean the restroom but "this guy's been in there all morning."

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a nice collection of portraits and images at 'Mustard Gas Party'

link

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holograms at home with the Litiholo Hologram Kit

link

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i like to check out what people are doing with the latest Photoshop contests. Lots of subjects and imagination....

This one falls under the 'Musical Prototypes' category.

at Worth1000.com

link

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ending with a couple of games....sort of

play 'URouLette' and go to random web sites..........link

hone your blackjack game at 'Hit or Stand'............link